ACL Festival Preview: Conflicts

This is the part in my pre-fest coverage that is the most fun for me, it's where I look at the Austin City Limits Festival official schedule and I highlight the points in the festival when it will be hardest to choose one stage versus another. Last year was my first year attending ACL Festival and I learned a great lesson, which is don't needlessly move from stage to stage. So, for me personally, my decisions will be based on proximity as well as desire to see a specific set. Last year I did a lot of moving from one side of Zilker to the other and I can tell you, it's a task. Factor in that it's going to be hot as the surface of the sun this year and it makes the likelihood of me traversing the festival grounds even slimmer. I'm not here to tell you which artist to choose either, I'm just going to point out some decisions that you'll have to make throughout the weekend. Some may be no-brainers for you, some may be harder than algebra. Let's start chronologically shall we?

My first major conflict happens at 2:30pm on Friday when Fool's Gold takes to the Austin Ventures stage and Delta Spirit play the Bud Light stage. In this case, you CAN see Delta Spirit at Emo's tonight OR since it's early in the day you can catch half of each set. The Austin Ventures stage is located in a pretty central area so it shouldn't be too tough to move between these two stages at around 3:00pm on the opening day of the fest.

Fool's Gold - Nadine video via YouTube

The next major conflict, happens during the next time-slot. James Blake starts at 3:10 on the Honda stage, that's on the complete opposite side of the park from the Bud Light stage where Delta Spirit will still be performing. Blake's set goes until 4:10p Friday. Meanwhile, back toward the Bud Light stage, Smith Westerns take to the Google + stage at 3:30pm. I have seen both Smith Westerns and James Blake and they're both great performers but due to trekking reasons, and the fact that James Blake's music is very intimate, I'm probably going to choose Smith Westerns. There music is just more festival appropriate and it will require less moving on my part. Did I mention I'm bringing a chair this year?

Smith Westerns - Weekend video via YouTube

The rest of Friday I won't feel too conflicted. I know a lot of people are going to have a tough time choosing between Foster the People and Cold War Kids but I'm probably going to go with choice C) food. The final conflict for Friday is the headliners. It's a battle between Coldplay and Kanye West. Two very different performances in two very different genres. The worst kept secret of the festival this year is that Jay-Z, will join Kanye to perform some of the songs from Watch the Throne. Also, Jay-Z's wife is from Houston so it's possible that she will appear as well. I've seen both Coldplay and Kanye in the past and both performances will be very high energy with lots of spectacle. Kanye will have more cameos and auto-tune, he'll have a cooler stage setup and a LOT more bass. Coldplay will have more balloons, more positivity and a LOT more yoga poses. This is going to be a tough call for me and seeing parts of both sets will require some serious walking and chair carrying. My verdict is still out but I'm kind of leaning toward Kanye, I feel like his set will have more surprises than Coldplay's.

The Throne - Otis video via YouTube

Saturday:

The conflicts start shortly after noon on Saturday as I choose between The Antlers on the AMD stage and Aloe Blacc on the Bud Light stage. The Antlers newest album is one of the best of 2011 and when I caught them at Emo's earlier in the year they sounded at their best. They've added a touring member who really fleshes out the guitar sound and the rhythm section deserves a drumming Emmy. Aloe Blacc is an artist I have never seen before, who sounds fantastic on recordings. Can he deliver in the hot Texas sun? This conflict is early enough in the day that I could probably catch pieces of each set but the jury is still out on which one I'll start with, or if I'll actually end up splitting my time at all.

Aloe Blacc - Loving You Is Killing Me video via YouTube

The next conflict is between The Belle Brigade and Twin Shadow. I have seen Twin Shadow three times in the past but I love them soooo much, I would LOVE to see them play before a festival crowd. On the other hand The Belle Brigade shows a lot of promise and an up-and-coming act that we will be hearing a lot more from in the future. I featured them already as a group who you must see at the festival. Would it be hypocritical of me to not watch their entire set? You'll have to keep an eye on my Twitter feed to see, which band I choose on Saturday.

The Belle Brigade - Losers video via YouTube

The next Saturday conflict is at 4:00pm Saturday, between Iron & Wine or Alison Krauss & Union Station. Both acts feature amazing songwriting, with deep, personal, heartfelt vocal performances. Both artists are known for their breathtaking live performances and both are legendary in their respective genres. Also, I have never seen either act perform live, this might be the toughest conflict to date. I'm leaning towards Alison Krauss even though I'm less familiar with her songs, simply because I feel like I will have many more chances to see Iron & Wine perform.

Alison Krauss & Union Station - Paper Airplane video via YouTube

The conflicts between 5:30pm and 7:00pm are numerous. Specifically, between 6:30pm and 7:00 pm, I want to see Cut Copy, Wanda Jackson AND Gillian Welch. Of those three Wanda Jackson is the artist whom I have never seen before, I saw Gillian Welch quite recently and Cut Copy live on another continent. So, even though I ADORE Gillian Welch, she is, pretty much, out of the running. She is based in Nashville and will be back in Austin soon. Wanda Jackson is a legend so I MUST catch her set and when she is done, I'll have time to catch the climactic final 30 minutes of Cut Copy.

Wanda Jackson - Thunder On The Mountain video via YouTube

The headlining conflict for Saturday is going to be a difficult choice for lots of people. My Morning Jacket is largely considered to be the best American touring band of this generation and Stevie Wonder has written about two dozen of the greatest songs in American music. I have seen a lot of conversation about his on twitter and I know a lot of people will be splitting their time. For me, it's a pretty obvious choice. I am definitely a fan of My Morning Jacket but they will be back in Austin a lot in the next few years. Stevie Wonder will not

Stevie Wonder - Living For the City video via YouTube

Sunday

On the final day of ACL two bands that I've featured both go on at 1:30pm. Do I see the quirky Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr? Or do I go for the The Head and The Heart. I love both of their albums and I think that both acts deserve my attention. However, I have seen Dale Jr Jr on Emo's inside stage and I have never seen The Head and The Heart. The fortunate thing is, no matter who I choose chances are both artists will be back through Austin again within the next year. I love you Austin!

The Head and The Heart - Lost In My Mind video via YouTube

Later in the day both Death From Above 1979 and Elbow go on at 5:30pm on opposite sides of the park. Their sounds are very different but they are similar in the sense that whichever stage I choose I'll be bummed I missed the performance at the other stage. Neither Elbow nor Death From Above play very often, although DFA did perform at SXSW this year. Personally, I'm a brit-pop addict so I'm going to choose Elbow although, the hipster side of me really thinks I should go with Death from Above.

Elbow - Open Arms video via YouTube

So, those are the areas in which I feel most conflicted this year. Who know maybe I'll just be passed-out in a folding chair from too much beer and sun and I won't feel conflicted about any of this. As I mentioned, I feel like a lot of these decisions will come down to how far will I have to move my chair, if at all. Congratulations and thank you to those of you who managed to read this far down in the post. I truly appreciate you, I love writing this post every year but it takes forever to put all the links in here. Feel free to tweet at me where you feel conflicted or post it in the comments if you wish.

Read more!

Year-End Lists

As a music-fan/blogger-douche I adore year-end lists. Top 10 local albums, top albums, best songs of the year, best shows, best list etc. This time of year it seems as though everyone has a list for something music-related and I like that. However, I find it annoying that Kanye West's latest LP seems to be topping so many lists this year. First Rolling Stone magazine (remember Rolling Stone?) gave the album 5 stars, then Bitchfork gave it a 10.0 and now all sorts of media outlets are calling it the best album of the year. Now, I know that no publicity is bad publicity so I'm actually promoting the LP simply by writing this bitch-fest but I have a hard time believing that of every album that came out this year it is the best. We can all agree that musical tastes are quite subjective and calling one piece of art better than another is pretty silly but let me give you my top 10 reasons why it won't be topping this blogger's list. In fact, even though I truly enjoy the album I won't be including it in my top 10 albums of the year out of shear principle. With that I give you my 10 reasons why I won't be adding My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to any best of list on this site.

10. Self-Indulgence

Runaway is a great song, it's catch it has a good hook the production is nice but 9+ minutes?!?! I mean, the first 20 seconds is the same note! Also, I don't know about you but once it hits about minute marker 5:45 I just skip to the next track. That outro is just aural masturbation. The video for Runaway, which lasts roughly 35 minutes is the perfect example of Kanye's self-indulgence:


Kanye West - Runaway video via YouTube

9. So Appalled

The 7th track on the LP entitled, So Appalled has several emcees, none of whom can properly pronounce the word, "ridiculous", which is both ironic and irritates me SO much I have to skip the track. I know it's a silly reason but it's a reason why the LP doesn't deserve perfect marks from lazy reviewers.

8. Faux self-deprecation

I'm going back to Runaway on this one again. Even when Kanye is being self-deprecating he's saluting himself. You can't humble yourself and toast yourself simultaneously even if it's tongue-in-cheek. It's like saying, "Sorry you were insulted by what I said." That's not the same as an apology.

7. The Cover-Art

This reason requires no explanation, does this look like the artwork for the best album of the year to you?



6. Pairing Rihanna w/a song in which you hit a woman

The song I'm referring to is track 5 called All of the Lights. The chorus is sung by Rihanna and one of the first lyrics is, "...I slap my girl, she call the Feds..." Ummm, even though Kanye is in character in this song I just find that to be in poor taste to say the least. Also, it's not the only reference to violence against women on the album.

5. Hell of a Life

It's not that track 10 is terrible but it certainly wouldn't be on the best album of the year.

4. You made John Legend sing what?!?!

Like many people, I adore John Legend. He is featured on the track the Blame Game and hearing him sing "I'll call you bitch for short, as a last resort and my first resort, you call me motherfucker for long..." just seems like a waste of his talents.

3. TLDR

For those of you who don't know what TLDR means, it stands for "Too Long Didn't Read". When I notice that almost have the songs on your album approach and/or breach the 6 minute mark I'm thinking at least 90 seconds of most of those songs are just wasting my time.

2. Wasting Bon Iver

So, you get Justin Vernon to guest on your record and all you do is bury his vocals and then sample a song of his that uses Auto-Tune? How did this collaboration even occur? Hey, you like Auto-Tune? I like Auto-Tune too! Let's hang out. The first time I heard the beat kick in on Lost in the World it just made me laugh. You made a disco, club-banger out of a beautiful, delicate song? Really?

1. Over-use of the word pussy

From the 2-3 minute sample of Chris Rock going on and on about pussy to Kanye's line about "Pussy and religion is all I need" as a gay man and a feminist I'm sooo over the subjugation of women on this album. You know Kanye surrounding that pussy is a woman, she has a brain and most likely a family and she has emotions too. To quote Kanye himself on this, and other issues of feminist theory: "I don’t know what it is with females, but I’m not too good at that shit"

In conclusion yes I just dedicated an entire post to critique the latest Kanye West LP but what I'm REALLY critiquing is the human-centipede-esque best of lists this year. It's like one magazine is eating and shitting in to the mouth of the next and so on and they're all drawing the same conclusions. I do enjoy Kanye's latest and greatest effort but I don't find it to be the best LP of the year and I think all of these media outlets ranking it number one have short attention-spans to put it lightly. The ten reasons above are why it won't even appear in my 10 best albums of the year list. Also, I just dedicated this entire post to promoting the LP, so I don't really need to include it in any lists, right?

Oh, and Kanye, if you're reading this, you obviously have too much time on your hands, no one reads this website. Don't take yourself so seriously.

Read more!

SXSW '09 Redux

Well dear reader, I'm sure you were expecting more posts regarding SXSW as it was happening. But seriously there is like NO time for all that during the festival. I don't know how the heck Perez Hilton can be bicycling around Austin and still keeping up with Celebublogging. I needed a day or two to decompress after the festival. But here is my highlights/awards post, yeah!!

First let me give out some marketing awards. SXSW is all about marketing your product to the hipster masses. I think Astralwerks records wins most clever marketing with their MicroSD card sampler. I like the idea of a sampler I could swallow if I had to. Most unexpected marketing is a tie between Pop Tarts and Cup O'Noodle soups, both of which were available at the Mohawk. Who's eating Cup O'Noodle at a SXSW day party?

More awards and video after the jump...


The award for my favorite performance by a band or artist I had previous knowledge of goes to, the Dirty Projectors. Their performance at the Pitchfork party at Emo's was totally entrancing. I absolutely loved everything about it, the only problem was the set was SO short I think they only played 4 or 5 songs.


Dirty Projectors - A Take-Away Show video via YouTube

The award for favorite performance by a band I had never heard of goes to Francis & the Lights. They were so fun, I felt like I was at an 80's prom. Honorable mention goes to a completely different sort of musical performance by, the Wheel. They were so honest and raw, intimate and such it was like the complete opposite performance style but was equally entertaining.


Francis & the Lights - The Top video via YouTube


The Wheel - Hanging Surrender video via YouTube

The award for worst kept secret performance is a three-way tie this year! Jane's Addiction, Kanye West, and Metallica all showed up to do some not-so-secret performances. I will give Kanye a special nod for keeping Common's appearance a secret though.


Jane's Addiction - Rock the Rabbit '09 Ultra8201.com video via YouTube


Kanye, Common, Badu - The Light video via YouTube

The award for artists I'm kind of pissed that I missed goes to: Passion Pit, Beach House, White Lies and Grizzly Bear. The award for band I'm pissed that I DID see because they were such arrogant assholes goes to...Glasvegas.


Beach House - Gila video via YouTube


Passion Pit - Sleepyhead video via YouTube

Glasvegas literally said, "We don't care about the people, we have enough fans." That was about the point I left. They suck, don't buy the record, steal it from BitTorrent and burn copies for everyone you know. After all they have enough fans.


Glasvegas - It's My Own Cheating Heart video via YouTube

The award for most talked about party...hmmm, this one is tough to call. I'd say the Fader Fort, Rock the Rabbit, One Night with Perez, and the Red Bull moon towers were all equally hyped. Personally I only attended the Rock the Rabbit and Fader parties and I liked the Fader one more...sorry Playboy. Rock the Rabbit was just too effing loud, you try networking when Calvin Harris is spinning some HEAVY Drum 'n Bass with the amps on 11. I'm talking ears bleeding loud. Fer realz.

Well I think I've given out all the awards I had intended to, so here's a list of the artists I had the opportunity to see for free at SXSW '09...not necessarily in order but pretty much chronologically:

Little Boots,
New Villager,
the Wheel,
the Donkeys,
School of 7 Bells,
Glasvegas,
Francis & The Lights,
Late of the Pier,
Max Tundra,
the Pains of Being Pure at Heart,
Woods,
Wavves,
the Dirty Projectors,
King Khan & the Shrines,
Department of Eagles,
Harlem,
Jason Lytle,
Vivian Girls,
the Grates,
Cursive,
Bun B,
Jadakiss,
Kanye West,
Consequence,
GLC,
Farnsworth Bentley,
Kid Cudi,
Common,
Erykah Badu,
Mr. Hudson,
Tony Williams,
Big Shine (sp?),
Jane's Addiction,
Calvin Harris,
A-Trak,
Bassnectar

I really feel like I might be missing a name or two but I tried to keep a running list throughout the week and that was it.

If you would like a more play by play approach to my SXSW '09 experience. I suggest you peep my Twitter 'cause I was all over the Tweets last week.

Read more!

Going On w/ GB

While I'm not a big fan of Gnarls Barkley's latest effort the Odd Couple it definitely has its moments. Kudos to Kanye for pointing one of them out.



I miss videos sometimes. I went them free, podcast style, on my iPod...but if I'm being honest I probably wouldn't watch 'em that much anyway.
Read more!